Electric hair drier



May 8, 1923 R. H. BRCDWN ELECTRIC HAIR DRIER Filed Feb. 24 1921 aSheets-Sheet 1 May s-{ wza R. H.- BROWN ELECTRIC HAIR DECKER Filed Feb;24, 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 8, 1923.

UNITED STATES RICHARD H. BROWN, 01' NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELECTRIC HAIR DRIER.

Application filed February 24, 1921. Serial No. 447,377

To all whom iii may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD H. BROWN, a subject of the King ofGreatBritain, residing at 1236 Grand Concourse, New York Hair Drier,

city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in an Electric of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to a new and improved hair drier.

Devices of this kind have been known for many years and they consistessentially of a heatmg element adapted for heating a current of airpassing over it and means for forcing a current of air over suchelement.

One of the objects of my invention is to prevent the burning out of aheating element which is heated by electricity, as this .may happen ifthe air current is produced by means of an electric motor and theelectric current is passed through the heating coil while the motor isout of circuit.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved regulation ofthe temperature and volume of air delivered by the device. 7

Another object of my invention is to provide a ready adjustment of thedevice so as to direct the current of .the heated air at varying angles.

Another object of my device is to enable the motor to be operatedindependently of the heating element and to regulate the action of thedevice by a switch which is actuated in the same direction, in a seriesof separate movements.

Other objects of my invention will be disclosed in the followingdescription and drawings which illustrate a preferred embodimentthereof.

Figure 1 is a side view, the cap of the housing being shown as partiallybroken away.

Flgure 2 is an end view of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical central section. a Figure 4 is asectional viewshowing the heating element.

Figure 5 is a section along the line 5--5 of Figure 4.

Figure 6., is an end view of the right-hand side of Figure 4.

Figures 7, 8, 9', 10, and 11 diagrammatically illustrate the electricalconnections for re lating the action of the device.

he device consists of a pedestal 35 upon which the electric motor casing9 is mounted. The feed wires 10 serve to connect the switch mechanism inhousing 12 to a source of current and the wires 11 serve to carry thecurrent to the wire 26 on element 17 which is held in the nozzle 18 ofthe device, as clearly illustrated in Figures 1 and 4.

An ordinary fan having blades 20 is mounted directly upon the shaft 21of the motor and the cover 7 of the housing has a perforated part 22 asclearly illustrated in Figure 1, through which air can be sucked intothe housing 1 to be expelled by the fan through the nozzle 18 and theextension 15 thereof, which is pivotally connected at 14 to the nozzle18.

The portion 23 of the extension 15 may be made of flexible tubing andthis can be caused to rest upon the holder 16 secured to the housing 1,as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2.

The air is thus sucked in through the perforated net work 22 and forcedover the heating element 17 to be directed upon the hair of the personbeing treated.

The element 17 has a coil of wire 26 wound thereon, this wire being madeof any suitable metal or alloy, so that it can become very hot under theaction of a current without oxidizing or melting. This wire may be ofany standard kind well known to the art and hence it requires nodescription, and

the element 17 is, of course, made of insu-' lating material in the wellknown manner. The two terminals 27 and 28 of the coil 26 .are connectedto the binding posts 29 and 30 as indicated in Figure 4 and the twobranch wires 11 are suitably secured to these binding posts.

The element 17 is held in place by a spider 31 having a central portion32 which closes up the bore of the core of the said element,

so as to' prevent any air from passing ber of difierent positions, oneof them being illustrated in dotted lines in Figure 1.

The left-hand flange 8 of the housing 1, as shown in Figure 3, isprovided with a resilient conical member 34 which fits somewhat looselyupon the stationary hub 35' which surrounds the shaft 21 of the motor. Acollar 36" may be forced against the resilient conical ring 34 b meansof the rews or bolts 37, whose t readed ends fit into suitable threadedrecesses in the. hub 35 so that the flange 8 is forced by means of theresilient ring 34, against the end wall of the motor casing 9, so as tobe frictionally held in any position that it may occupy in the plane peendicular to shaft21.

The cover of the housin 1 is held in position by means of the pin 5provided with wings 6. The pin 5 is internally threaded so as tocooperate with externally threaded pin 5', so that-when the parts are in'the position shown in Figure 2, the cover 7 is held in position by theclamp 38 which is forced into the locking position by turning the wings6. By loosenin the pin 5 and revolving the pin 5' aroun its pivot 4 intothe position shown in Figure 1, the cover 7 o the housing may be readilyremoved.

The regulation of the device is diagrammatically illustrated in Figures7 to 10, the object being to accomplish this regulation by means of arevoluble switch having a head 41. It is desired that the first turn ofthis switch head 41 to the right shall cause the motor having thebrushes 35 and 36 to operate, while no current is forced through theheating coil 26. At the next turn of the switch head 41 to the right,the motor will be actuated so as to run at relatively low speed whileheating currentis sent through the coil 26. At the next. turn of theswitch head to the right, the amount of current sent through the coil 26is somewhat diminished, and the motor is driven at a higher speed sothat the temperature of the air being forced through the nozzle islowered as a smaller amount of heat is supplied to a greater volume ofair. At the next turn of the switch head 41 the current sent to theseries motor'in casing 9 is relatively increased,

1 and that sent through the heating coil is relatively diminished sothat a larger and relatively cooler air current is produced. At the nextturn of the switch head 41 to the right, the currentis switched off theheating element and the motor. It is, of course, understood that eachturn of the switch head 41 is onl for a fraction of a revolution and thebe ore mentioned operations commence at the next movement of the switch,so as to provide a continuous cycle.

As illustrated in Figure 7, the motor is directly connected by means ofone of its brushes 36 to the coil 26 of the heating element and it isalso connected through this coil 26 to the terminal H of the switch. Themotor in 9 is also connected through the Same brush 36 to'the tworegulating resistances R and R which are connected in se ries to theterminal 1 of the switch. A shunt Wire connected between the resistancesR and R is also connected to the terminal 2 of the switch and anothershunt wire 34 is connected to the terminal 3 of the switch.

One of the mains 10 is connected to the other brush 35 of the motor andthe other wire 10 is connected to the terminal 36" of the switch. 7

The switch is mounted revolubly upon 37 and it has a bearing or contactsurface designated by 38.

Inthe sition shown in Fig. 7 which may be'ca led the first position, thecurrent passes through the bearing surface 38, and the two resistancecoils R and R by means of the. terminal 36.

Since the motor is a series motor, the motor in casing 9 is caused torevolve at a relativellia low speed and to send a current of cool air trough the nozzle 18 because the coil 26 has no current passed throughit.

In the next position which may be called the second-position and shownin Fig. 11, the switch has been turned so that the bearing surface 38 isconnected to the terminals 36, 1 and H. In this position the currentpassin to the motor flows along two paths, one o coils R and R thereinan the other path having the heating coil 26 therein. Hence the coil 26causes the air passing through the nozzle 18 to be intensely heated andthe motor revolves more rapidly than in the first position of theswitch.

The next or third position of the switch is shown in Fig. 8 in which thebearing sur-. face 38 contacts with the terminals 36, 1, H and 2. Theresistance coil it is new short circuited and the current passes to themotor in two paths, one of these paths having the resistance coil Rtherein and the other having the heating coil 26 therein.

Hence the motor is caused to revolve still morerapidly than in theprevious positions of the switch and the resistancecoil 26 stilloperates to heat the air passing through the nozzle 18.

The next position of the switch, which may be called the fourth positionis shown in Fig. 9 in which the bearing surface 38 contacts with theterminals 36, 1, H, 2 and 3. Both resistance coils R and R are thus cutout of the circuit and the current passes to the motor through theheating coil 26.

In the next position of the switch shown in -F ig. 10, the bearingsurface 38 no longer co tacts with the terminal 36' and the device isout of operation.

What I claim is:-

1. In an electric hair drier or the like, a

heating element adapted to be heated by the' these paths havin 'theresistance heated thereb and controlling means including switc mechanismfor controlling the current sent to both said heating element and thesaid driving means, the first movement of said switch in the'operationof said device being adapted to cause a current to be sent only throughthe said driving means, the next movement of the said switch beingadapted to cause the current to be fed both to the said heating elementand the said driving means, the next movement ofi the said switch beingadapted to cause more current to be fed to the said driving meanswithout interrupting the current to the said heatin element and the nextmovement of the sai switch being adapted to cause still more current tobe fed to the said driving means without interrupting the current to thesaid heating element, whereby a current of air is first pased over thesaid heating element without being heated thereby, and, a progressivelyincreasing current of air is then caused to be passed over the saidheating element.

2. In an electric hair drier or the like, a heating element adapted tobe heated by an electric current, an electric motor adapted to drivemeans for sending a current of air over the said element to be heatedthereby, and controlling means including switch mechanism forcontrolling the current sent to both said heating element and the said-motor, the'said switch mechanism having five terminals adapted to becontacted with by the contact head of the movable member of the saidswitch, one of said terminals being connected to one of the mains, the.next terminal being connected with one of the brushes of the said motorthrough resistance means, the next terminal being connected to thebefore mentioned brush through the heating coil for the heating element,thenext-term'inal being. connected to said brush through a part of saidresistance means, and the next terminal being connected substan tiallydirectl to the said brush so that the current can sent to the said brushwithout passing through the said resistance means, the contact headbefore mentioned being of suflicient length to simultaneously contactwith the said five terminals.

3. In an electric hair drier, a heating element adapted to be heated bythe passage of an electric current, an electric motor adapt ed to driveair-driving means combined therewith for sending a current of air overthe said element to be heated thereby when an electric current is passedthrough said element, controlling means including a switch mechanism andadapted to control thetemperature of the air issuing from the saiddrier, said switch mechanism having a plurality of contacts and movablebearing means adapted to be actuated through a plurality of consecutivemovements and occupy a plurality of different positions with respect tosaid contacts, the first position of said bearing means being adapted tocause a current to be sent only to said motor, the succeedingconsecutive positions of said bearing means being adapted to causeelectric current to be passed through said heating element also and alsocause a lowering of the temperature of the air issuing from said drierby increasing the velocity of revolir tion of said motor in proportionto the amount of current supplied .to said heating element.

4. In an electric hair drier. the Combina tion of a hollow core locatedin the-nozzle thereof and having a coil of wire wound upon the exteriorthereof, switch means for causing current to be sent through the saidcoil of wire, the said coil being held at one side by a spider whichcloses up the hollow of the said coil and being held at the other sideby a bridge.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my signature.

RICHARD H. BROWN.

